SAP Visual Intelligence #SAPVisi 1.0.6 is now out – Can you use Visi to Predict the Future?

SAP Visual Intelligence 1.0.6 is now available – if you have Visi you can simply select Help > Check Updates and let it install as shown below, without logging on to the Service Marketplace

Release 1.0.4 brought simple predictive features.

From the SAP Help describing forecasting in Visual Intelligence:

“Allows you to predict how data may behave in a defined future period. Depending on the type of chart, the forecasted data is displayed as bars or a line in a single color added to the existing chart plots for a defined future time period.”

Also from the help: “The predictive calculation is available for a measure on the Y axis of a chart when charted with a time based hierarchy on the X axis.”

First acquire the data.

After acquiring the data, make sure you have a time hierarchy as shown below:

I dragged the time-based hierarchy to the X axis and the measure Sales Revenue to the Y axis.

Select the dropdown next to the measure and select Predictive calculation > Forecast

You are prompted for cycles.

Then the forecast is shown below in the yellow color

You can change the X-axis time hierarchy to quarter and then see the results

So you can see the forecasting now by quarter in yellow.

This is a simple predictive forecasting feature to consider in Visual Intelligence.